Handsome Furs
Big Brother On Their Back

With the simple promise of hope and change, thousands loaded into boats and set sail for a new land of opportunity. The travel was tough and tiring — conditions were sub-par, the food of the sickly canned variety. The clashing of customs in close quarters was compelling, but usually swelled into boredom — the differences of lands far and wide buried in webs of apathetic, push-and-shove word contests and incomplete, inconsiderate thoughts wrapped in harsh delivery.

When the hordes arrived, they were shuffled into their new home after traversing the obstacle course of initiation. Names were changed, ideals were smashed in a matter of minutes and their skintight black jeans, black boots, ripped t-shirts of unknown logos and overall stench and demeanor were ridiculed in town squares and public forums. The freakishly similar parallels to the growing pains of mass immigration to America and the rise of punk rock were realized. While the Irish and Polish sought the newly founded (yet to be branded, brought, packaged and sold) “American Dream,” the punks sought sanctuary in three power chords and ferocious, angst-soaked simplicity — an idea, a “dream” and a sound in both cases that aimed at making the status quo shiver.

Such is Dan Boeckner of Handsome Furs' story. While he may have never made a journey of such epic proportions in hopes of securing the “dream,” Boeckner (along with fellow Fur and wife Alexei Perry) has carried his rugged, five o’ clock shadow electro-pop from the socialist-tinged Canada to the capitalist stronghold that is the United States. In the realm of punk, Boeckner initially missed the boat, drawing his inspiration to pick up a guitar and begin his musical journey via Metallica’s glory days of Ride The Lightning and Master Of Puppets.

“I’ve never been that amazing of a guitar player,” explains Boeckner, who recently returned from a weeklong vacation at Perry’s family butterfly farm in Aruba. “I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play like Kirk Hammett or anything like that, so I started leaning more towards punk and all that surrounds it” — choosing simplicity over complicated sweeps, ferocious heart-on-your-sleeve emotion over heavily produced propaganda. The sleepy via phone delivery and sincere dedication to the metal juggernauts is secured by his time spent in a middle school Metallica cover band, simply called ... Ride The Lightning.

Boeckner would go on to leave the bedroom (along with trading in his small town upbringing after high school for the somewhat hustle and bustle of Victoria, British Columbia) to form several bands — the underground, forgotten and now-defunct Atlas Strategic, and the Sub Pop Records darlings Wolf Parade (who, according to Boeckner, are planning to record new material this fall). Both groups carried Boeckner’s signature voice (an unsteady, drunken croon of sorts that sounds much older than Boeckner actually is), guitar work (a folk-soaked, rock-a-billy grime of full chords and catchy picking) and electro-key textures and sonic subtleties. Boeckner isn’t quick to discuss his music in large, articulate sweeps that journalists dream of, but more than ready to explain the correlation between always writing music during and in between all the dead end jobs he has experienced over the years — a chase of the “dream” that falls on the immigration side of the metaphor.

“I worked in the lumber trade for a while,” says Boeckner, who would help direct helicopters to massive piles of lumber for pick up and transport. Boeckner’s vocational experiences would occasionally spill onto the adventurous side of things, like his time spent working in the “hellhole” of Vancouver at a video store. “I was held up at needlepoint once,” laughs Boeckner, only caring to explain this bizarre crime after further inquiry. “Yeah, held up at needlepoint. This guy came into the store and said, ‘I have HIV and if you don’t give me your money, I’ll stab you with this dirty needle.’ We never kept more than fifty dollars in the cash register at one time, but he made off with the dough.”

One “shitty” job in particular — the answer-and-hang-up, love-and-hate world of telemarketing — would lead Boeckner to meeting his future wife. While both Boeckner and Perry were in relationships and were not fans of the job, they continued “only to keep seeing each other,” laughs Boeckner. “It was obvious we liked each other, and the job was an excuse to see each other every day” — a well-documented but still painfully romantic affair, indeed.

When Boeckner kept running into tracks that simply wouldn’t work for Wolf Parade, the idea of the newlyweds musically working together came to fruition. The result was Handsome Furs — an evolved continuation of Boeckner’s musical style, albeit a heavily electronically splashed one. The duo would release the warmly received Plague Park in 2007 on Sub Pop Records followed by 2009’s Face Control; an album written and constructed after the band’s extended stay in Russia and the influence of the country’s modern day, Big Brother-esque corruption and the increasing presence of capitalistic tendencies within communist confines. While the context of which Face Control was written carries substantial weight, the relatively upbeat vibe of the album lives primarily in the clubs and nightlife naughtiness of Moscow — an infiltration of the scene rather than an observation from the outside in.

While the combination of Boeckner and Perry is one of creative cohesiveness — Face Control is a simplistic listen that never truly gets old — one has to ask the tough question though, “Wouldn’t working, living and loving your significant other be a bit smothering?”

 “It’s not weird for us to work together,” explains Boeckner. “We definitely know how to give each other space, and to go a while without talking to one another all the time really isn’t a problem.” When on the road (a common affair for Handsome Furs who will be touring well into the fall), constantly surrounded by a heavily alcohol-influenced culture of streetlight excess, the couple is unaffected. “It just takes respect and trust,” continues Boeckner, “along with the fact that we can both handle our alcohol” — a perfect “dream” of true love thanks to capitalist cupid’s arrow of love and of punk rock prevailing into something much, much larger.  | RDW

Handsome Furs • 7/2 • Cityfest’s Main Stage



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